


In Case of Emergency (Break Dance)

by tabris



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, w-inds.
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-01
Packaged: 2018-04-18 10:35:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4702889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabris/pseuds/tabris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryohei waited until Keita and Ryuichi both had their mouths full of noodles before he told them the reason he wanted to go out to eat dinner with them tonight.</p>
<p>"I'm going to be busy for the next month and a half." Or more. Hopefully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Case of Emergency (Break Dance)

**Author's Note:**

> another piece started long ago that i fell in love with but never wrote as much as i'd wanted to because of the lawsuit. what's here, i feel, can stand alone but who knows what i'll end up doing with it. set around the release of 'last angel', when tvxq and w-inds. started showing up together every now and then.

Ryohei waited until Keita and Ryuichi both had their mouths full of noodles before he told them the reason he wanted to go out to eat dinner with them tonight.

"I'm going to be busy for the next month and a half." Or more. Hopefully.

Ryuichi nearly choked and Keita gulped his last bite so he could set his chopsticks down to pound him on the back a little harder than necessary while asking, "What for?"

Quietly snickering at the glare Ryuichi gave Keita, Ryohei replied, "I mean, I won't be disappearing off the face of the earth completely. All of our scheduled stuff is fine, there's only a few appearances anyways, I've just got a project I'm working on."

Two pairs of ears perked up and Ryuichi tilted his head with a final cough, "What kind of project?"

"I...," Ryohei trailed off, suddenly finding the menu on the wall to be very interesting, "I can't tell you what it is yet."

Keita immediately started guessing what it was: a magazine column, a video for some crew, something for his and Ryuichi's old dance studio, whatever it was he should totally be allowed in on it because he could so dance now, his crumping was awesome and come on, tell us, Leader-san.

Knowing it was odd for him, Ryohei got evasive and kept trying to drag Keita off to another topic while Ryuichi stayed quiet and watched for the most part, laughing every now and then if only because no one could resist Keita's laugh. It was pretty obvious that he was plotting though since he hadn't seen Ryohei this nervous since their debut days. Something was up, probably something big from the way Ryohei was squirming under Keita's relentless questioning.

"Ne, Ryohei?" Ryuichi interrupted, "You'll tell us when you can, right?"

"Of course."

He was lying, but Ryuichi hadn't been his friend for ten years for nothing, so he told Keita to shut up and finish his kimchi ramen before he did it for him and gave Ryohei a look that clearly said 'you know I know you're doing something you probably shouldn't be and you owe me big time for this'. Ryohei nodded weakly and went back to his own noodles.

 

It wasn't that Ryohei didn't like being a part of w-inds. any more. He loved w-inds.. The group had been his life for eight years. It was just... It had been his _life_. Nearly every single thing he had done or said, nearly every place he had gone, it had all been because he was w-inds.' Chiba Ryohei. He was proud to be w-inds.' Chiba Ryohei, but the little voice at the back of his mind that whispered _Skill or Fame, which one are you really relying on?_ kept getting louder and louder with each passing month.

There was a big part of him that missed the days when he could just dance and not worry about singing or being the Leader. When he found out that they wouldn't be putting together a new album until after their summer tour and that Keita was doing a solo mini-album the gears started to turn.

And kept turning.

Then things started to fall into place.

A clause in his contract kept him from doing anything with another company musically, but that wasn't what he was going for anyways. After a lot of careful reading and searching, he was able to determine that as long as he used another name and completely forewent anything having to do with w-inds. or w-inds.' Chiba Ryohei he could still dance. Which was the whole point.

Timing would be crucial, otherwise he'd end up getting caught, bringing about the end of w-inds., or utterly exhausting himself. _More_ research led to only one artist looking for dancers whose proposed tour schedule wouldn't conflict with his own. He'd have to do some creative transportation for a couple of dates but it was doable. Barely.

After sleeping on it, Ryohei could only come up with two things that could possibly be problematic. Unfortunately, they both had the potential to become _very_ problematic.

He had to pass an extremely competitive audition based purely on skill without being able to mention, oh yeah, he had _lots_ of experience dancing in front of thousands of people.

The bigger issue? Even if he managed the first part, how the hell was he going to keep Jaejoong from telling Keita?

 

The audition was a week after their fan club events were over. Ryohei spent every waking moment not with Keita or Ryuichi working on his routines and trying to remember every single thing they or Kenn had ever asked any of their own potential dancers. Being on the other side of the hiring process was new and more than a little scary.

It took nearly all the restraint Ryohei had not to blab his entire plan to Kenn. After over five years of working with him both as a choreographer and dancer plus the fact that they'd become friends, Ryohei knew he'd be a wealth of information and truly sound advice. He also knew that if Kenn knew what he was up to, every single person they knew would also know within a week. Kenn was a worse liar than Keita, and that was saying a lot.

So work it was, until the wee hours of the morning only to get up with the sun to work some more.

Ryohei wasn't surprised in the least when he got sick the day before.

 

On the morning of the audition, Ryohei got to the studio early and ended up being one of the first handful of people there. Everyone's tensions were high but not in a way that made it uncomfortable. As more and more people started to trickle in, stretching and warming up, Ryohei mostly kept to himself, thankful the health mask he was wearing hid most of what his beanie didn't. Especially as a group of guys came in that he'd seen at w-inds.' auditions last year walked through the door.

Before the actual individual trials started, a staff member came in and gave everyone a rundown on what to expect and to wish everyone luck. That was when it finally sunk in for Ryohei what he was about to do.

Why on earth did he think this was a good idea?

Taking a deep breath, Ryohei walked in.

The actual dance part of the tryouts passed by in a blur of breaking, popping, spinning, and the Korean style of choreography Ryohei had come to love. When it was all over, the tour choreographer thanked him for coming and reminded him to expect a call the next morning regarding a final interview if he passed the first day's trials.

It was all a bit anticlimactic. Still, Ryohei had no expectations about sleeping at all that night.

 

Something was making an obnoxious noise against Ryohei's cheek. Last he checked, his pillow wasn't supposed to vibrate. Or be quite that pointy.

Blearily, Ryohei sat up and realized after a second that he was on the couch in his living room and that his phone was ringing from where he'd knocked it to the floor.

The phone! He lunged for it and managed to flip it open just before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?" he said a little too quickly. The voice on the other end identified itself and the events of the previous day came rushing back with a vengeance. Ryohei kept himself from squeaking and reminded himself that he was a professional.

"An interview later today?... Yes, I'm staying in Tokyo, about forty-five minutes away... Thank you, I'll be there at one o'clock... Thank you very much."

Falling back down lengthwise on the couch, Ryohei stared up at the ceiling and tried to make his face stop smiling. It wouldn't do to get ahead of himself.

 

When he got back up to the studio, Ryohei was surprised to see a list of names and interview times taped to the wall where the schedule had been the day before. There were far fewer names than he expected. He was even more surprised to walk in and see Yunho sitting at the table with the staff he'd met earlier.

The questions were pretty much what he had thought they would be, with a few things thrown in to keep him on his toes. Ryohei thought carefully about each answer and tried his hardest to make them believe just what he already knew— that he _could_ do this and that he truly _wanted_ to do this. By the time they were done and going over the timeframe that results would be called out, his heart rate had finally gone back down to almost normal.

Of course, that was when Yunho stopped him from leaving with a tentative, "Excuse me."

Ryohei nearly tripped over his tied shoelaces but managed to stay upright in a stroke of luck. When he looked up, he had the most ridiculous premonition of being told he was cut because they were looking for dancers that came up to at least the artists' chins. Completely ridiculous, of course.

"Um, yes?"

"This might sound a little strange," Yunho trailed off, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to continue. Trying hard to keep his face blank, Ryohei braced himself for the worst. "It's a little embarrassing, actually. I'm almost positive I've met you before but I can't seem to place where."

Letting out a nervous laugh and mentally thanking every god he'd ever heard of that Yunho seemed to be as oblivious as Keita, Ryohei smiled up at him. "Well, when I was in school everyone thought I looked like Ryohei from w-inds., but no, we haven't met before."

Yunho looked relieved as he laughed. "I'm glad I'm not starting to lose my mind. You did amazing, by the way. Looked like you've been doing this for a long time."

Okay, maybe not quite as oblivious as Keita.

"I'm not... I." Ryohei was at a loss. Something about the way Yunho said it sounded like he knew _something_ was going on but it didn't sound accusatory at all. Just curious. "Thank you. And kind of. I have."

Interest piqued, Yunho replied, "Really? You didn't mention it in the interview."

What was it about the other man that made Ryohei want to blab all of his secrets?

"I couldn't, it's complicated and..." Ryohei struggled with how to explain. "I just want to dance."

The truth of the statement must have shone through because Yunho simply nodded, expression softening.

"I get that."

Nodding to keep himself from saying anything else incriminating, Ryohei made to leave as one of the staff motioned at Yunho from across the room. On his way out the door, a hand on Ryohei's shoulder made him stop.

"For what it's worth, I hope you get it."

Yunho stepped back with a little wave and a brilliant smile and Ryohei felt the little bubble of hope in his heart grow a bit bigger.

 

"Ahahaha, eat my dust!"

"Screw you, you dirty rotten cheater."

"It's not my fault you don't know the difference between a triangle and a square."

"Triangle this."

"Oh now that was uncalled for!"

"Sucks to be you~"

"Children, children..."

Five thuds, four smacks, three oofs, two cracks, and one muffled 'ow' later, Keita was lying on Ryohei's floor, Ryohei sitting on his head with _his_ legs wrapped around Ryuichi who was sideways and wailing on them both with a couch pillow in each hand.

That was when Ryohei's pocket started to ring. He gave Ryuichi his Leader Glare of Doom to get him to chill with the pillows and rolled off of Keita to fish his cell out of his jeans. Still breathing a little hard, he flipped it open without checking to see who the caller was.

"Hello?"

The other person spoke but Ryohei couldn't quite make out what they said over the sound of Keita shrieking and Ryuichi shoving a pillow in his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Is this a bad time? I can call back later if it is."

Recognition kicked in, followed quickly by the beginnings of panic.

"Oh! Yu...umm... no it's not a bad time," he mumbled, kicking the two still on the floor as he walked towards the hallway to get away from nosy ears. "My friends are just sore losers. I'm really sorry about that."

"That sounds all too familiar," Yunho chuckled knowingly. "Do you have a moment?"

Ryohei locked himself in the bathroom.

"I do now. Though I have to say, I wasn't expecting to hear from you. Not directly. I mean. I wasn't really _expecting_... exactly. But." Facepalming was looking like a good plan. "Yes?"

"I didn't mean to surprise you. I actually had to talk our manager into letting me call you myself. The spot's yours, if you're still interested."

And wasn't it a little strange that Yunho sounded as hopeful as Ryohei had felt for the last month.

This time his voice did squeak. "Really?!" He coughed. "I... Thank you. Really, thank you."

"So you're still interested?"

"Most definitely interested."

"That's good to hear. Really good."

"I'm... I really don't know what to say other than 'thank you'. I'll work hard not to let everyone down."

"Me too."

Ryohei could hear the determination behind the simple phrase and knew then that this whole crazy thing was going to work. After a few more minutes of talking, Yunho had to go and promised to have the rehearsal schedule and the rest of the information sent to Ryohei's email. He closed his phone and stood up, stretching before flinging the door open and seeing exactly what he expected to see.

Keita and Ryuichi looked up at him with puppy eyes from their spot scrunched up against the doorframe where they'd obviously been trying to listen in on the conversation.

"Leader, do you finally have a date?"

"What!?"

"He does!! Look at his face!"

"Leader has a da~ate, leader has a da~ate," they singsonged in harmony.

At least, until Ryohei threatened to beat them both over the head with playstation controllers.

Now if he could just keep his incredibly nosy bandmates from finding and spilling the proverbial beans he'd be well on his way to a truly interesting few months.


End file.
